There’s a bureaucratically complex but perfectly legal way for the administration of Pres. Joe Biden to send to Ukraine the thing Ukrainian brigades need most. Shells.
Why worry? Trump has made it perfectly clear that the president can apparently do whatever the hell they want to and good luck at stopping them. I believe Biden should take the same liberties. Perhaps I’ve just lost faith in the system.
The “I can legally do whatever I want when I’m president” argument he’s been making is relatively new and SCOTUS is looking into it. If Trump loses, he’s fucked. If Trump wins, Biden could potentially have him assassinated. Legally. And if I were Biden, I sure would. Why not if it’s legal?
He made the argument during an interview with David Frost years after he was president.
He made the argument when he ordered the bombing of Cambodia and Laos at the advise of Kissinger. He made it when he launched the War on Drugs, as an excuse for federal harassmemt and surveiling civil rights activists and anti war protesters. He made it when he coordinated with criminal cartels down in Florida and the surrounding Gulf States to rig elections, disenfranchise voters, and red bait the opposition.
He reiterated it during the Frost interview. But he never gave a shit about rule of law.
Trump is making the argument in court
An argument guys like Nixon and Reagan and Cheney never had to make because they were never prosecuted for their crimes.
People doing good things shouldn’t wait to find out if shitty people doing malicious things are told no. Just do the right thing already, face the consequences later. That’s what the shitty people do, and they usually get away with it.
This is not the right thing. The end of supporting an ally against Russian imperialism, fulfilling our promises, taking the cheapest route to safeguard our national interests, does not justify the means of the executive branch willfully misinterpreting government controls to circumvent fundamental checks and balances
You will bleed integrity with every one of those shortcuts you take. You say “let’s skip it and just do the right thing”. What can you not justify with that? You can excuse genocides, coups, war crimes. I don’t just have a problem with Trump’s motivations, but also his means. That approach, always correlated with populism, is foolish and always, always tends to oppression.
I’m not from the USA so I don’t have a dog in this fight but this seems like a mad approach to me. Think beyond the immediate short term.
In your place I’d be standing up for and strengthening your institutions and conventions; they aren’t perfect but the checks and balances are the only thing holding back people like Trump. If you don’t abide by the rules either that becomes the new normal and Trump-like figures will become commonplace and no longer be seen as an aberration.
I’m not from the US either, but I have heard of Project 2025. If Republicans actually implement what’s in it, whatever checks and balances were left will go right out the window.
You all are aware that the subversion of the constitutional state for what you deem to.be good reasons will end in the same weakening of said state no matter who did it, right?
Don’t lose track of what’s at stake by getting blinded by bipartisan feuds. You can’t fight the enemies of law, oder and democracy by undermining law, order and democracy. That is literally the only thing one can learn from the Star Wars Prequel trilogy.
I agree, in theory. But I like if he’d use that unlimited unitary executive power to… expand Medicaid into all the states that rejected it over the objections of those state governors. Then, maybe unilaterally abolish the $1.6T in outstanding student debts. And while he’s at it, nationalize the Petroleum industry and start ramping it down, so we can avoid climate change.
I feel like we can do the military surplus to Ukraine thing once we wrap the high priority stuff up first.
Why worry? Trump has made it perfectly clear that the president can apparently do whatever the hell they want to and good luck at stopping them. I believe Biden should take the same liberties. Perhaps I’ve just lost faith in the system.
Probably should wait and see if SCOTUS agrees with Trump on that before jumping the gun.
Afterward? Yeah, Biden should do whatever the fuck he wants. And he had better.
Four years after he’s left office and we’re still waiting for the SCOTUS to make up its mind?
The “I can legally do whatever I want when I’m president” argument he’s been making is relatively new and SCOTUS is looking into it. If Trump loses, he’s fucked. If Trump wins, Biden could potentially have him assassinated. Legally. And if I were Biden, I sure would. Why not if it’s legal?
Nixon made this argument 50 years ago.
He made the argument during an interview with David Frost years after he was president. He was also roundly criticized for it and called ignorant.
Trump is making the argument in court while running for president and a scary number of people are supporting him. That’s quite different.
He made the argument when he ordered the bombing of Cambodia and Laos at the advise of Kissinger. He made it when he launched the War on Drugs, as an excuse for federal harassmemt and surveiling civil rights activists and anti war protesters. He made it when he coordinated with criminal cartels down in Florida and the surrounding Gulf States to rig elections, disenfranchise voters, and red bait the opposition.
He reiterated it during the Frost interview. But he never gave a shit about rule of law.
An argument guys like Nixon and Reagan and Cheney never had to make because they were never prosecuted for their crimes.
People doing good things shouldn’t wait to find out if shitty people doing malicious things are told no. Just do the right thing already, face the consequences later. That’s what the shitty people do, and they usually get away with it.
This is not the right thing. The end of supporting an ally against Russian imperialism, fulfilling our promises, taking the cheapest route to safeguard our national interests, does not justify the means of the executive branch willfully misinterpreting government controls to circumvent fundamental checks and balances
You will bleed integrity with every one of those shortcuts you take. You say “let’s skip it and just do the right thing”. What can you not justify with that? You can excuse genocides, coups, war crimes. I don’t just have a problem with Trump’s motivations, but also his means. That approach, always correlated with populism, is foolish and always, always tends to oppression.
I’m not from the USA so I don’t have a dog in this fight but this seems like a mad approach to me. Think beyond the immediate short term.
In your place I’d be standing up for and strengthening your institutions and conventions; they aren’t perfect but the checks and balances are the only thing holding back people like Trump. If you don’t abide by the rules either that becomes the new normal and Trump-like figures will become commonplace and no longer be seen as an aberration.
Biden had no problem bypassing Congress to give israel genocide bombs. Which is far less legal than giving Ukraine a discount.
I’m not from the US either, but I have heard of Project 2025. If Republicans actually implement what’s in it, whatever checks and balances were left will go right out the window.
You all are aware that the subversion of the constitutional state for what you deem to.be good reasons will end in the same weakening of said state no matter who did it, right?
Don’t lose track of what’s at stake by getting blinded by bipartisan feuds. You can’t fight the enemies of law, oder and democracy by undermining law, order and democracy. That is literally the only thing one can learn from the Star Wars Prequel trilogy.
I agree, in theory. But I like if he’d use that unlimited unitary executive power to… expand Medicaid into all the states that rejected it over the objections of those state governors. Then, maybe unilaterally abolish the $1.6T in outstanding student debts. And while he’s at it, nationalize the Petroleum industry and start ramping it down, so we can avoid climate change.
I feel like we can do the military surplus to Ukraine thing once we wrap the high priority stuff up first.